Always curious about this... how did Soviets defect?

Question

And once in a new country, could KGB agents come and get them. Were they "safe" in their new country?

Answer 1

Sorry I misread your question.

Most people defected before WWII. During the Soviet Union times it was not possible, at least I don't know anyone who did.

I remember my first trip outside after the Soviet Union collapsed.... It was something. Then I didn't even imagine living in the US in my wildest dreams.

Answer 2

If you are talking about the cold war era then the answer is that it was really difficult. Foreign travel was almost impossible for most soviet citizens and the ones who did get out usually found that their families would have suffered economically if they did defect. Of the people who did defect most were of no political importance and it would not have been practical for the KGB to get them, If they were important enough for the KGB to track them down the government would have protected them.

Answer 3

Usually when they were sent on an overseas tour or mission by the government. e.g. Nureyev defected in Paris when he was on a tour with the Bolshoi Ballet.
They were usually safe as long as they kept away from communist countries

Answer 4

Soviets were defective in many ways - - - sorry just had to say that..... You really need to watch old movies even if they are in black and white and slightly out of step with the action films of the decade of the triple zero.

Montgomery Clift in 'The Defector,' Richard Burton in 'The Spy Who Came out of the Cold,' Clint Eastwood in 'Firefox,' Michael Caine in 'The Ipcress Files,' and lots of other movies illuminate the myriad ways people tried to weasel out of their contract their pact with the Soviet Party. Because that is how the Soviets viewed these matter. Once you were born on Russian soil the State owned you, supposedly owed you a decent life in return for service/servitude and it was rude to quit, almost like an American quitting a Union or Political Party. 'Yikes, ya ungrateful Gip.'

Many movies touch on athetes escapingt to the West. The Soviets kept a close eye on athletes attening Olympic Events. The Societs pioneered the intercontnental telephone, letting athletes hear their wives assuring them they were fine, for now, in the company of KGB agents, and "won't it be nice when you come home honey?"

There are actually rumors of the FBI using 'queers' to seduce Soviet athletes and at lest three defections are credited to gay romance though overwhlemed by dozens of more conventional romances which sparked a Soviet's decision to deflect.

A quick list; Soviets split at international sporting & cultural events, running away in 'the night,' some breakaways were dramatic, some boring as heck. Other Soviets flew out of the Soviet Union, bringing their airplane along as a gift to their new Hosts hoping it would gain them favor. Many more risked crossing the border to freedom, often this meant planning a trip to an Eastern Bloc country such as Hungary or East Germany and paying lots of bribes.

And yes for important Soviets the KGB did resort to kidnapping and/or killing them How safe often depended upon a persons value in their host counry. What friends they had made and if they made money for anyone but themselves.

Here are links and snppets..
http://www.tldm.org/news2/masters_of_deceit.htm

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/04/15/gouzenko_plaque040415.html
"""A bronze plaque was erected in Ottawa Thursday to commemorate the bravery of Igor Gouzenko, the Soviet embassy cipher clerk whose defection in 1945 marked the beginning of the Cold War.
The plaque was unveiled in a ceremony at the National Library and Archives and then moved to its permanent location in downtown Dundonald Park, opposite the apartment building where Gouzenko lived with his pregnant wife, Svetlana, and their baby boy.
Gouzenko left the Soviet embassy on Sept. 5, 1945, with 109 secret documents that revealed a Soviet spy ring had penetrated key government departments, the Canadian military and a laboratory with access to secrets of the atomic bomb.
His revelations led to major investigations in Canada, the U.S. and Britain and resulted in dozens of arrests. """

http://www.rgs.uky.edu/odyssey/fall99/intelligence.html
"""In the latter days of the Cold War, another of Pringle's duties was debriefing Soviet defectors to the United States, a process involving extensive conversations (Pringle then spoke good Russian, an ability that he admits has lapsed some) and lengthy interviews. Many of the defectors feared the KGB would hunt them down and kill them. "You were dealing with very nervous men who had risked a great deal," Pringle says.

Pringle reasoned that the men, nearly all well-educated government officials, would feel comforted if he showed them some of what he had learned in the course of earning his Ph.D. in Russian history at the University of Virginia. "The most important thing that I could do is show that I knew Russian literature, Russian history—Russian culture—and that I respected it."

He once loaned a popular Russian children's book to a defector so the man could read it to his son. The CIA officer developed a deep respect for some of the men he interviewed, many of whom had held jobs similar to his own. "You think, 'This is what I would be like if I had been in that system.'"

Peace......................